And the plan came.
Before I could move in it, however, I had to wait until we stopped to bait the flagging horses, which we did about noon at the head of the valley.

Then, pretending to drink from the stream, I managed to secure unseen a handful of pebbles, slipping them into the same pocket with the morsels of stuff.

On getting to horse again, I carefully fitted a pebble, not too tightly, into the largest scrap, and made ready for the attempt.
The landlord rode on my left, abreast of me; the other two knaves behind.

The road at this stage favoured me, for the valley, which drained the bare uplands that lay between the lower hills and the base of the real mountains, had become wide and shallow.

Here were no trees, and the path was a mere sheep-track covered with short, crisp grass, and running sometimes on this bank of the stream and sometimes on that.
I waited until the ruffian beside me turned to speak to the men behind.
The moment he did so, and his eyes were averted, I slipped out the scrap of satin in which I had placed the pebble, and balancing it carefully on my right thigh as I rode, I flipped it forward with all the strength of my thumb and finger.